SEX, LIES, AND SATELLITES IN HOMEOWNER ASSOCIATIONS

SEX, LIES, AND SATELLITES IN HOMEOWNER ASSOCIATIONS


By Donie Vanitzian, BA, JD, Arbitrator
(c)2006

Think "community" cable or internet is a good thing? Or maybe a "shared" satellite dish makes sense? Think again. Very often, homeowner association boards of directors are under the mistaken belief that "uniformity" and "conformity" is better than an owner's ability to make their own choices ‑‑ and ‑‑ for the association, they might be right. But for the owner, it is the worst possible scenario because when owners "choose" to give up their choices, they also forfeit certain rights to privacy.


HOW DOES THIS HAPPEN?

It happens because, in a legal sense, the association and its board of directors are not an "agency" and typically they are not a per se "business" soooooo they are able to circumvent legislation aimed at protecting "consumers." Whether in an association or not, homeowners are supposedly consumers. It gets worse from here.


SEDUCED INTO TRUSTING LIARS

As the authors of Villa Appalling! state "function on the premise that your board is lying to you." If you do that, you could be light‑years ahead of the other owners who think waiting for the bus arriving to "nowhere" is a good thing. By the way, they're still waiting.

Relying on the human nature of board members to respond to owners is one thing, but to rely on a board to exert equitable and impartial justice, well, that's all but impossible. Remember, this is a gang protocol and it has nothing to do with democracy or complying with the law. It never occurred to these mostly illiterate and ill‑informed gang‑banger board members that homeowners own property just like the board gang members do. Gee, that's a revelation.

By statute, in an association environment the concentration of power lies in a handful of persons on the board of directors. Whether good or bad, all boards have one thing in common: the owners (supposedly) elect them. Some boards authorize improvements for their own properties but not others. Some boards sign contracts as long as they receive big perks making it worth their while to sign. Other boards will commit the association to deals that are so egregious they are unspeakable, and some boards believe it or not, are honest and decent.

You've heard of "dog‑years" and "cat‑years" well, add "association‑years" [FN] to those explanations. Enter: the recalcitrant board of directors. By the time owners learn of any wrongdoing and start asking questions, in terms of "association‑years" it's already too late. And, if owners ask too many questions they can end up being the brunt of a board's notorious cease‑and‑desist letters or threatened with restraining orders and law suits and all the while that association time clock is knocking years off that owner's lifespan and depleting their resources, not to mention running out the statute of limitations.

In relaying their agenda to the homeowners, boards may intentionally minimize their contract dealings with cable, satellite, and internet companies. Conversely, they may launch a hard sell to convince owners that "one" cable or satellite provider is cost effective. Downplaying their poor decisions, boards may emphasize that their queries are "ongoing" when in reality they are a "done‑deal" or "back‑doored."


EXPANDING THE MEANING OF DEED‑RESTRICTIONS

While owners are sidetracked into filling out permission forms for satellite dish or cable installations, the board gives the appearance that it is concentrating on controlling association "aesthetics." Frequently, the same board decisions that benefit the association will fail to benefit owners. While on the surface it may LOOK like owners have choices, those choices might consist of nothing more than strong‑arm tactics to pick colors of paint or decide where to plant the petunias.

It is difficult to verify the board's rendition of facts because they may be laced in distortions, omissions, or subjective elaborations. Owners, who by now have become conditioned into believing and relying on lies, typically go along with board recommendations. Yet, the consequences for owners who believe such lies can be devastating and financially crippling. Whether agreeing to install cable or other similar technological services owners may have inadvertently agreed to a "right of entry." It may sound something like this, "We will have to access your unit to maintain the system." Once the "right of entry" is signed, any association employee has access to your home at any time. When an owner attempts to sue, they may learn that they consented to the "right of entry" when they signed the agreement for cable, satellite, or internet.


SILENT ACTS OF PIRACY

Some associations want centralized email, internet service providers, and so on, only because they will own your every movement. Understand that your electronic information can be subpoenaed and used in a court of law against you. The problem in an association environment is that THEY already own the contract, so guess what? They don't even have to subpoena your information because they already have it. Contemplating suing your association? Remember this: They've already got your information, but you have nothing on them.

Are your viewer choices protected? The answer to that question depends where you live and what your contract with the supplier is. When it comes to something as simple as making a routine payment for their cable, satellite, internet bills, and even association assessment payments, too many owners fail to question where their personal information goes and who has access to it. As the common interest development infrastructure becomes significantly more complicated and unpredictable, many otherwise so‑called "routine" activities morph into opportunities for identity thieves and nosey neighbors to access personal information ‑‑ YOUR personal information.

Most people believe they have a reasonable expectation of privacy in their home. Owners casually turn on their television sets and assume no one else is watching, but them. Wrong! Once the contract is signed, the cable, satellite, or internet company will typically grant rights to the "contracting party," not the owner, not the user. Owners do not ipso facto have a correlating right of access to the information gathered on them by the vendor who contracted with the board, or the vendor the board shares the information with. Because the homeowner is not the contracting party, there are no protections for the users' right to privacy. Cries about a board's "overreaching" are only an issue IF owners make it one, and stopping these actions requires unrelenting pressure by owners.

It is difficult enough to get owners to persist in viewing their association's books and records; can you imagine owners getting together to stop this invasion of privacy?


DON'T CLICK THAT MOUSE ‑‑ DON'T TOUCH THAT REMOTE

As there is no per se mandate that associations protect owner privacy, investigators have been known to pay cash for your data. Finding the weakest link, they seek out boards, management, employees, and vendors. Homeowner associations are a goldmine for boards or vendors seeking to capture information on individuals they would not otherwise be able to access.

The California Davis‑Stirling Act limits liability for boards and associations, the so‑called protections that owners THINK exist, does not. Read the Davis‑Stirling Act carefully, language allows the board to redact information for a myriad of real and imagined reasons. The statute language is porked up with words defying definitions, like "reasonably likely" or "compromise." What about this: "No association, officer, director, employee, agent or volunteer of an association shall be liable for damages to a member of the association as the result of identity theft or other breach of privacy. . ." Do you still feel safe?


DATA‑MINING INFORMATION

No California statute mandates destruction of data collected by associations. Digitized owner data is kept long after the owner has sold and moved away. Owners may be surprised to learn decades later when they least expect it; data collected by the association can surface in court. Worse, it can be used against the owner because the association owns the data.

A byproduct of an individual's usage through technology is sometimes referred to as "clickstream data." Whether by cable, satellite, or internet, clickstream data stalks your identity and tracks your usage. This data is a unique fingerprint. It exposes everything you unwittingly give it.


EVERY MOVE YOU MAKE: WE'LL BE WATCHING YOU

The vast amount of data acquired on users, especially homeowners, is frightening! Right now, you will NEVER be sure just how much information your board already has on you. The problem is that most owners GIVE that information to their board without ensuring where it is going and WITHOUT DEMANDING PROTECTIONS beyond what is written in the present‑day laws that are woefully inadequate.

Your information is ripe for data warehousing which is usually stored and centralized for easy access. There is no limit for how long it can be kept. Owners may be unaware that using a password to access an association's web site might mean you automatically consent to allowing the association to monitor your interactions and give them the right to use your personally identifiable information. These, and other collection methods increase the risk of piracy. Even ONE association‑related lapse in internet, cable, or satellite security can have devastating consequences "forever."


WERE OWNERS TOLD THAT:
$ Personal information and viewing habits may be sold or shared without owner consent? This includes the board=s access to your email habits and the content of your emails -- don=t make the mistake of believing what your board may tell you about this, they do it, they can do it, and they will continue to lie to you about it.

$ Owners cannot opt out of the board's contracting decision, even if they don't want it, and even if they don't want their house wired for it?

$ ANY board at ANY time may have unlimited access to each owner's viewing habits and are free to profile owners? This includes FUTURE boards.

$ Owners may not have access to the "same" information as the board?

$ Owners may not negotiate better deals or communicate directly with cable, satellite or internet companies because they are not the contracting party?

$ Programming and viewing choices may be changed or curtailed at any time without owner consent?
$ Owner viewing choices and clicks of the remote may be permanently logged in a file forever and information made available to "any" director ‑ even future directors?

$ The association may use an owner's viewing history, programming choices, and clicks of the remote, against them, even in court?

$ Whether they like it or not, even if an owner's data is used or misused each owner agreed to the board's choices of providers or programming?

$ If the owner happens to be employed by a cable, satellite, or internet company, they may not be able to use their company's services, discounts, or other benefits?

$ This is a ticket for an association board or their vendors to enter your home "without consent" and, they'll do it under the pretext of "right of entry" to fix the service"?

$ Owners may have a duty to disclose these problems to prospective buyers?


THE ELECTRONIC MARKETPLACE WANTS:
g your age, gender, address, phone number, e‑mail address, how much you pay, when you pay, and to whom you pay it to ‑‑ and they are willing to buy this from YOUR BOARD;

g the dates and times you turn your television set on and off and the number of times you do this;

g the channels you watched and the programs you recorded;

g web site visits and patterns of access;

g your technology and server log‑on information;

g the transfer of the owner's information to a third party is immediately facilitated when they turn on their television set or send an email transmission;

g the information collected on you that is most personal and as such, is far more dangerous because you don't see it being collected;

g technology has evolved to the point of enabling people you probably already don't trust, to record, track, and monitor information on your viewing and financial habits;

g information garnered from each individual owner goes "somewhere," meaning it is stored "forever." Off‑loading this information to the company that essentially owns it, provide the company, and ultimately your board, with a mechanism to collect and keep data and information on you.

THE OWNER'S CLICK‑LIST:
# Don't ever email the board or management company ‑‑ ever!

# Don't ever communicate with the board or management company using instant messenger.

# Don't ever make the mistake of believing that merely because you pressed the "delete" key, it deleted data.

# Don't let the board convince you that payments are easier because charges are added into association assessment fees, or that one satellite dish is aesthetically better than others.

# Don't believe that such services will cost less overall because the association will be making a contract deal.

# Don't believe that having one provider cuts down on hird party vendor traffic into the development.

# Owners need time to obtain their own legal advice in order to make an informed choice and to be able to timely challenge the board.

# The owners' privacy rights must be defined.

# Without written assurances, penalties and damages for breach, you must assume that everything you just read, is happening right now.

Before ever writing that deposit check for a property located in a common interest development with a homeowners association, buyers should be asking questions and getting answers that satisfy them. If the answers are not forthcoming and not in writing: DON'T BUY.

[FN1] coined by Donie Vanitzian.